serial_crusher:She was dead so long that bandages just started sprouting forth around her, and her organs hopped on out through various orifices and encasing themselves in clay jars?

Or, is it really me who doesn't know what the word mummified means, rather than TFA?

Well, a body can become "mummified" due to the climate it is kept in. Although that would be more accurately described as "dessication". It is unlikely that this woman's apartment was arid enough to make her corpse dessicated.

How do you reach such a sad point in your life that a judge tells your neighbors the rotting corpse smell coming from your apartment is probably from your lack of hygiene, not an actual rotting corpse.

Also, how do you reach such a sad point in your life that you live in such a shiathole that the landlord doesn't forcibly evict tenants whose hygiene is so bad it smells like a rotting corpse?

serial_crusher:How do you reach such a sad point in your life that a judge tells your neighbors the rotting corpse smell coming from your apartment is probably from your lack of hygiene, not an actual rotting corpse.

If your rotting corpse is producing a rotting corpse smell, then you are probably beyond any "point" in your life, sad or otherwise.

serial_crusher:Or, is it really me who doesn't know what the word mummified means, rather than TFA?

It's you.

Mummification can be accidental or intentional. If a body is preserved essentially intact without significant decay, it's considered a mummy. Natural mummies are occasionally found in arid areas (high altitudes, deserts), when buried/covered in dry soil, salt, or other natural desiccant or antibiotic, or in peat bogs where the oxygen level is so low that bacteria can't reproduce.

Decay requires heat, oxygen, and moisture. Remove any one of the 3 and the body won't decay.

I can't believe Spain's privacy laws are so strict, no one could enter the place for a "Wellness Check" for over 2 years, and technically the husband did not have the right to enter the premises because he had been out of contact with her.

clyph:Treygreen13: I don't know if "mummified" really applies here. Mummification is sort of a special process or a result of unique conditions a corpse is kept in.

Not so "unique". A body will be naturally mummified if the humidity is low enough and there's enough airflow that it's dessicated before it rots.

I'm sure forensic science has quantified the temperature / humidity curve for it to happen.

I didn't mean to infer that it is impossible for a body to be mummified due to normal circumstances.

However, the Spain Travel Guide from about.com says the high temperature in Madrid in September is somewhere around 85 degrees Fahrenheit, with the low being 55 degrees. Which seems low for dessication to occur so dramatically that the body is "mummified". It does say, however, that Madrid is particularly dry in that period of time, so it is a possibility.

Treygreen13:clyph: Treygreen13: I don't know if "mummified" really applies here. Mummification is sort of a special process or a result of unique conditions a corpse is kept in.

Not so "unique". A body will be naturally mummified if the humidity is low enough and there's enough airflow that it's dessicated before it rots.

I'm sure forensic science has quantified the temperature / humidity curve for it to happen.

I didn't mean to infer that it is impossible for a body to be mummified due to normal circumstances.

However, the Spain Travel Guide from about.com says the high temperature in Madrid in September is somewhere around 85 degrees Fahrenheit, with the low being 55 degrees. Which seems low for dessication to occur so dramatically that the body is "mummified". It does say, however, that Madrid is particularly dry in that period of time, so it is a possibility.

I still think "mummified" is a misnomer here though.

You're one of those who argues over use of the word "decimated" too, aren't you?

Gyrfalcon:You're one of those who argues over use of the word "decimated" too, aren't you?

Not unless somebody says "literally decimated".

The only reason I bring up the problem with "mummified" here is because they included a photograph of a corpse that has been intentionally mummified. Just like I'd point out the "decimated" thing if the headline was "Real Madrid decimated by injury" and then included this photo: